Vasile Alecsandri

VASILE ALECSANDRI (1821-1890 One of the leading Romanian
literary, political, and diplomatic figures of the 19th century,
Alecsandri was born
in Moldova in a boyar family
with connections to the court of Prince Mihail Sturdza.
Educated privately at home (along with Mihail Kogalniceanu), he
was sent with several Moldovan young men, including Alexander Ion
Cuza, to Paris in 1834 where he studied medicine, law,
literature, and enjoyed Parisian social life. He built strong
relationships there with Muntenian students (especially Ion
Ghica) who as a group came to view themselves as Romanians,
rather than as Moldovans or Muntenia
ns.

He returned to Iasi in 1839 to work in the Treasury of Moldova,
and to write, publish, and promote the idea of the union along
with Kogalniceanu and others. He was one of the leaders of
the Romanian theater in Iasi after 1840, both as an organizer,
director, and writer. And he was an editor of the nationalist
journals Dacia Literara (1840), founded with
Kogalniceanu, and Costache Negruzzi and
Propasirea, founded by Kogalniceanu in 1844.

Alecsandri was heavily involved in the activities of the Moldovan
1848 revolutionaries. During the 1840s, he had worked with the
underground by carrying messages and encouraging them through his
correspondence. He was a frequent visitor to the Costache Negri
estate, Minjina, a center for Muntenian and Moldovan reformers.
(He was also romantically involved with Negris sister, Elena,
whose illness and death in 1847 deeply affected him.) With
pressure building in and around Moldova in 1848, Prince
Mihail
Sturdza called a meeting to allow some of the young idealists,
including Alecsandri, to present of their complaints. In
response, Alecsandri edited a petition-proclamation for the
reformer/ revolutionaries promoting the ideas of union and
liberty. He also wrote at this time his poem-manifesto
Desteptarea Romaniei.

After the collapse of revolutionary activity in Moldova,
Alecsandri fled to Transylvania to avoid arrest, where he
published the brochure "Protest in the Nam
e of Moldova, Humanity,
and God." He wrote more unionist poetry inspired by the assembly
at Blaj in May 1848, and signed the May "Our Principles for
Reform of the Country." Finally, as he analyzed the death of
the revolution in Moldova, he became even more of a unionist.

In June, Alecsandri moved to the Hurmuzakis in Cernauti where he
became the secretary of Moldovan revolutionary committee which
contributed to the underground revolutionary activity in
Moldavia. He issued in the name of
the committee the
"Proclamation of the National Party of Moldova to All Romanians,"
and published poetry in the Pan-Romanian journal
Bucovina. In September the revolutionaries sent him
to Paris as a diplomat and propagandist to inform Europe of the
Romanian national cause. He was also sent to Constantinople,
Hungary and Transylvania to promote the ideas of union and
liberty. Throughout this period Alecsandris correspondence and
literature encouraged the exiles. He also gave materia
l support
to the cause, especially Balcescu. Settling in Paris, Alecsandri
edited along with Nicolae Balcescu and Alecu Russo (The Future Romania) in Paris.

In late 1849, the newly-installed liberal/unionist Prince Gregore
Ghica (1849-1856) brought him back home and made him State
Archivist. He was prominent in nationalist and unionist
activities. His journal, Romania Literara (1855),
played an important role in Romanian cultural life. In 185
6, his
Hora Unirii was published; it became the hymn of the unionist
movement. After the double election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza
(1859), Alecsandri became one of his key advisors, served as
foreign minister, and as Romanias ambassador to major capitals.
After Cuzas ouster, he was much less active in politics, but did
spend the last five years of his life as Romanian ambassador in
France (1885-1890).

Alecsandri was an inspirer, influence, and leader of Romanian
literary endeavors until his
death, a mentor of the Junimea
movement, and doyen of Romanian writers and playwrights. His
collection of folkloric popular poetry (1852) was a first, his
poems inspired a generation of poets, and his heroic, historical
dramas were highly successful. His work was known in France and
Italy, winning a prize in 1878 for Romance language poetry at
Montpellier and gaining him a reputation as a kind of Victor Hugo
of the East. He was also a noted letter writer.
Jean T. Michelson